How are community-based organizations addressing crime in Baltimore City?

words by charles brooks 

“…the power of the community is demonstrated in the decline of crime…”, Maryland State Public Defender, Natasha Dartigue

From 2015 through 2022, the murder rate exceeded 300 bodies every single year. Then the murder began to decline. Significantly. In 2023, there were 262 bodies. In 2024, barely 200. At the June half-year mark in 2025, the count sits at 68.  

There’s a different story unfolding in Baltimore with a new chapter being written. Not by Hollywood scripts or media narratives, but by a network of committed organizations dedicated to their community and neighborhoods. Their story starts with meeting the moment with a heightened sense of urgency in the neighborhoods and communities where trauma is amplified yet muted. 

Today’s reporting of crime, particularly when concentrated in Black neighborhoods, draws a lot of attention from elected officials, media outlets, and even from Hollywood.  But what often escapes the headlines are the self-determined actions taken by people who live in these neighborhoods. 

Those actions were highlighted during a recent public discussion held in Baltimore City that asked, and answers a critical question; What’s actually reducing crime? Community power. 

The Maryland Office of Public Defender (OPD) brought together Tyrone Kent, who serves as director of Roca Baltimore, and Anthony Muhammad, the community engagement specialist with the We Our Us Movement, to talk about the efforts taking place in neighborhoods around the City to save lives by changing the street culture. 

For nearly two hours they talked about the daily investment being made through a wide range of activities and actions taking place in neighborhoods across Baltimore City. Their responses to the moderator’s line of questioning provided deep insight into the steps taken to reduce crime and stabilize neighborhoods in Baltimore. 

As Mr. Muhammad explained, “…when we show up on your block, at your door, on your corner with 100 men, 200 men, with a message of hope, a message of inspiration, and services and resources that can improve the quality of life - that has an impact. That makes a difference…”  

They described a community-based framework with the capacity to meet the immediate material needs of people by providing the key services and resources to support their personal economies such as employment, housing, food, or drug treatment. Mr. Kent talked about the difficulty in engaging with people when their immediate needs are not being met, and how important meeting their most immediate needs are, “The first conversation is the most crucial conversation…”

He went on to say, “…coming into the community, satisfying needs, it’s hard to get people to receive services or even to entertain a conversation about services when they have a lot of needs. When they have a need, it's not a need that can wait until next week.  They have an immediate need, but you are trying to have a conversation about a program. But what can you do for me right now.”

An essential component in their work around saving lives starts with recognizing the very real challenges that people experience in their personal economy. They recognize that addressing urgent needs like food, rent or just keeping the lights on helps to reduce the anxieties, and distress that comes with trying to make ends meet. When comfort and trust develop, the people are more receptive to a message of peace, and open to becoming an active participant in resolving conflicts. 

Mr. Muhammad spoke about establishing the “Stop the Beef” hotline, and made this point,  “…and even though the hotline is active over the last five years, it has evolved into really a movement, a network of people who collaborate the work all around the city, where when the citizens are having problems that they themselves cannot resolve, we ask them to call the hotline to call us and let us come and mediate that conflict.” He went on to say, “…and over the last five years, we have earned the credibility, the respect of the people who are out in the community, who know us and know us very well, and they know that when they call us, they are not calling BPD (Baltimore Police Department). 

Mr. Kent talked about the importance of providing wrap-around services along with addressing the critical behavioral and emotional needs of young Black men. He spoke about using and applying the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help the young men who pass through Roca’s doors in not only building the personal skills of young men but redirecting their negative thoughts and behaviors. 

He described the benefits these young men experience when they are able to identify and change their negative thoughts and behaviors. 

To underline his point, he painted a picture of what happens when negative thoughts and behaviors are

left unchecked, “…and now I have this handheld machine, and all I have to do is pull the trigger to eliminate what’s causing my discomfort because nobody ever told me how to regulate my emotions…”.  Mr. Kent continued the conversation, discussing the different tools and support Roca uses to transform lives.  

The conversation was important because it provided a window to the activities and actions taking place in Baltimore City.  Actions and activities that clearly dispels the notion that Black people are okay with crime and are not taking self-determined measures to address crime and safety in their communities and neighborhoods. 

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM MAY 13TH?

words by charles brooks

Mother's Day is just not the same for this working-class community in Philadelphia, where 6221 Osage Avenue sits. The people remember May 13th, 1985. 

The people remember the tragedy of May 13th, 1985, ensuring its place as one of those days that will never be forgotten. May 13th occupies a strong hold on our collective memory because it’s not just another typical reminder of another typical routine episode of police terror and state violence.  

Forty years ago, Philadelphia’s political leadership, Mayor Wilson Goode, Police commissioner Gregore Sambor, Fire Commissioner William Richmond and managing director Leo Brooks collaborated in their decision to orchestrate a destructive military style attack, targeting a group of Black revolutionaries. 

They made a politically calculated decision to not only unleash 500 police officers to fire 10,000 rounds of ammunition, disperse teargas, and forcefully pump thousands of gallons of water into the home where MOVE members lived but to drop powerful C4 explosives there as well. A decision that cost the lives of 11 Black people including 5 children, where over sixty homes were destroyed and over 250 people were now unhoused. A decision to allow the fire to spread as firefighters were relegated to mere spectators, taking no action as they watched the fires burn one house after another.  

The Mother's Day attack was actually the result of recurring episodes of police terror exercised against MOVE, who engaged in a political life and political activities staunchly opposed by both the Mayor and the police. For several years before Mother's Day 1985, there were a series of confrontations between MOVE and the police that led to the August 1978 shooting in Powelton Village. 

The charging of nine MOVE members with the death of one police officer at Powelton, triggered their transformation from Black revolutionaries to the MOVE-9, political prisoners.  All were sentenced 30 years to life; Merle and Phil Africa passed away in prison. The remaining seven collectively served over 280 years in prison before their release; Debbie Sims Africa (over 39 years), Mike Africa Sr,  (40+), Janine Phillips Africa (40+), Janet Holloway Africa,  (40+), Eddie Goodman Africa (41), Delbert Orr Africa, (41+), and Chuck Sims Africa, the last to be released after serving over 41 years.

The contradictions continue. 

Despite two investigations of the Mother's Day attack, no indictments were handed down. No prison time. None. 

Except for Ramona Africa.  She was the only adult survivor from the Mother's Day attack along with her younger brother, Birdie Africa. But it was Ramona who was arrested, charged, and convicted before serving seven years in prison as a political prisoner.  

The Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission, also known as the MOVE Commission, was created less than two weeks after the attack. They investigated, and held televised public hearings before issuing their report, where they stated in part: "…The Mayor abdicated his responsibilities as a leader when, after midday, he permitted a clearly failed operation to continue which posed great risk to life and property. The report outlined 38 suggestions or recommendations for future improvements. 

A year later in 1986, a grand jury was convened to determine whether criminal charges should be levied against any of Philadelphia’s leaders. Two years later in 1988, the grand jury found no evidence of anyone acting with “criminal intent, recklessness or negligence under Pennsylvania law, and therefore no criminal charges could be brought.”

Year after year, for 35 years there would be no apology forthcoming. None. Not from the mayor’s office, the Police Department, Fire Department, or Philadelphia’s City Council. This finally came to an end in November 2020 with the Philadelphia City Council's hollow recognition of May 13th as “annual day of observation, reflection and recommitment.”

But just a few months later in early 2021, new revelations emerged shedding light on what happened to the forensic remains after the MOVE bombing. 

Anthropological collections maintained by the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University contained the forensic remains of one or two MOVE members. The remains were used as a case study in their research and study of forensic anthropology, as well as in their online course, “Real Bones: Adventures in Forensic Anthropology”

The controversial revelations not only raised serious questions and concerns but provided a window to the long history of medical experimentation and exploitation on Black people beyond the likes of Henrietta Lacks and the notorious Tuskegee Experiment. 

The May 13th assault is often seen through a lens that’s particularly focused on the sordid history of policing in Philadelphia - typical of policing in Black working-class communities throughout the nation.  Focused on the manner in which law and order is practiced in Black communities, particularly in their reaction to the pursuit of Black liberation via revolutionary activities.  Through a lens wide enough to observe the menacing intrusion of state surveillance that often resulted in the harassment and political imprisonment of not just men, but women, as well. 

The significance of May 13 continues to grow and resonate with working class Black folk people because they can see the contradictions on public display, the current political conditions shaping their political lives, their political reality.  

Harriet Washington makes this point to think about in her book Medical Apartheid, “It reveals how Blacks have historically been prey to grave-robbing as well as unauthorized autopsies and dissections. Moving into the twentieth century, it shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of Blacks.”

Additional information

West Philadelphia Collaborative History - MOVE

Philadelphia & MOVE - LibGuides at Community College of Philadelphia

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